Heavy_Workload_of_Nurse

Nowadays, nurses are able to handle both clinical and administration duties. The nurse-patient ratio in Hong Kong is 1:12. Some RNs used words “ridiculous”, “impossible” and “more than an average person can handle,” to describe their current workload. This report mainly focuses on how the heavy workload of hospital nurses is a major problem that adversely affects patient outcomes. Heavy nursing workload contributes to high turnover and the nursing shortage. Nurses are expected to perform nonprofessional tasks such as delivering and retrieving food trays; transporting patients; and ordering, coordinating, or performing ancillary services. These tasks increase nurses’ workload undoubtedly. Some senior nurses will plan to leave their job or assign within a year because of heavy job demands. The first dimension is that there is an overall lacks of nurses, the second dimensions is there is a lack of experienced nurses. As a result, due to a temporary shortage between experienced nurse and new graduates, junior nurses and new graduates do not have enough experience and confidence when they are entering into the nursing field. This may lead to poor quality of hospital care and poor patient outcome. Excessive workloads also causes fatigue and contribute to their making errors. Under heavy workload, more errors are detected in hospital on days when nursing workload is higher. Nurses do not have insufficient time to perform tasks safety, they have less time to assist us in detecting those errors, for example, nurses may forget to double check the medication; therefore, the chance for errors is increased. Besides, high workload will influence the nurses' decision to perform various procedures in order to bring about poor job performance and job dissatisfaction. When they reduce the attention devoted by a nurse to safety-critical tasks, thus increasing the risk of patient care , it is dangerous to patients Furthermore, over workload can be a major factor contributing to high emotional exhaustion. Facing a large amount of workload, nurses have high pressure on their work. Unfortunately, nurses do not have sufficient time to accompany with parents and friends and express their feeling when they have stress. The emotional state will then become unstable. When they are nursing the patients, they can easily to behave unprofessionally. Nurses experiencing stress may not be able to perform efficiently and effectively because their physical and cognitive resources may be reduced, this may affect patient care and its safety. In addition, it may lead to poor the nurse-patient relationship when they are having communication because nurses’ emotion affects having therapeutic communication with patients. A heavy workload experienced by a nurse not only affects this nurse, but also have negative impact on patient outcomes. Nurses play a key role in monitoring patient progress since they are usually the first to encounter early signs of patient deterioration. Overworked nurses are less able to provide the close monitoring required for safe care. We should redesign to reduce nursing workload or to minimize the negative impact of a heavy nursing workload. The patient and patient’s family should show support which can motivate the nurse deal with negative aspect of their heavy workload. Job satisfaction is an essential element for the maintenance of the workforce of any organisation. Nurses’ level of job satisfaction could influence nurse turnover rates. The presence of motivators enhanced nurses’ job satisfaction levels. Small actions like giving a thank you card, some encouraging words, act as a motivator to support nurses to maintain the high level of commitment that delivering quality care requites. Nurses will keep on with the essential work of having quality care to the patients. Shorter hours for nurses help to reduce the nurses’ pressure and errors. Nurses are often required to work overtime; they do not have enough rest. Fatigue results from continuous physical or mental activity, inadequate rest, sleep loss, or nonstandard work schedules. Facing heavy workload, nurses should obtain more sleep and relax and start their next shift with less fatigue. For the short-term solution, the authority should employ administrative staff who desire lower salary. Nurses do not have time to communicate with patients since they need to handle clinical and administration duties. The authority should employ administrative staff to handle some non-nursery or documentary works in order to reduce nurses’ workload. For the long-term solution, to be honest, it is a must to open more nursing programme to train more new blood for the medical sector. The demand for nurses is increasing as a result of population aging. The supply of nurses is inadequate to meet the current demand. Training more medical staff can tackle the problem of lacking nurses in public hospitals. To conclude, heavy nursing workload is a serious problem that affects patient outcomes and safety, and government should take measures to tackle the problem as soon as possible. Reference: 1. Carayon, P., Gurses, A. (n.d.). Chapter 30. Nursing Workload and Patient Safety - Human Factors Engineering Perspective. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/docs/CarayonP_NWPS.pdf